Study: Leaking uranium, arsenic not causing ills

| Wednesday, September 13, 2006

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(AP) - Abandoned uranium mines in northwestern South Dakota are polluting nearby streams, but a new study doesn't determine if that has caused cancer or other health problems miles downstream.

Creeks flowing out of the northern Cave Hills, west of Ludlow, contain elevated levels of uranium and arsenic, said engineering professor James Stone of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in Rapid City.

Some residents of Harding County and Standing Rock Indian Reservation say they believe dust and water from the mines is causing an unusual number of illnesses, including cancer. But the water is not used for drinking, and state data show cancer rates in the area are normal.

The new study shows that although uranium and arsenic are escaping the mine sites, it dissipates as it flows downstream, becoming undetectable fewer than 10 miles away.

"It doesn't appear that these mine sites are a source, from a surface-water standpoint," Stone said.

That is based on his team's analysis of 22 water samples at 14 sites near a set of ponds that is supposed to block pollution from the sites. Stone and others continue to work on studies of contamination in stream sediment and dust.

The advocacy group Defenders of the Black Hills has argued that the mines are causing health problems on Standing Rock.

Charmaine White Face of Rapid City, coordinator for the group, said dust and floods still could be carrying uranium much farther east - as far as Bullhead in Corson County 100 miles downstream.

The state Health Department said Harding County had 89 cancer deaths between 1969 and 2002, lower than the statewide rate of 187 per 100,000 people. Corson County had 242 deaths, a rate that is higher but not statistically different from the state rate, epidemiologist Lon Kightlinger said.